Tom Collings | Australian Canoeing - The second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup gets underway on today and concludes on Sunday. More than 600 athletes from 40 countries will participate across 26 events in the small town of Racice in the Czech Republic.

Australia’s gold-medal winning K4 crew will have it’s first serious test for 2014 when it races in the Canoe Sprint World Cup in the Czech Republic this weekend.

Australia will field a team of 12 athletes, five of whom will be making their first World Cup appearance of the year.

Two of those are Tate Smith and David Smith. They will join fellow Olympic gold medallists Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear to contest the K4 1000 event.

While the two Smiths sat out the first World Cup, Stewart and Clear produced an excellent start to their international seasons winning silver in the K2 1000.

The ‘K4some’ as they are now affectionately known have one eye on the World Championship title this year and will hoping to set the foundations for what is to come with a strong performance on Friday.

Links

• ICF Press release World Cup Racice
• Event website: www.racice2014.com
• Startlist and results: www.sportis.cz/csv.php?id=1451
• Livestream: www.youtube.com/user/CanoeKayakTV/videos?view=2&shelf_id=13&live_view=502